Indian journalists attacked on the ground and surveilled online

Paramilitary troops are seen in New Delhi, India, after clashes erupted between people demonstrating for and against a new citizenship law on February 25, 2020. (Reuters/Danish Siddiqui)

Paramilitary troops are seen in New Delhi, India, after clashes erupted between people demonstrating for and against a new citizenship law on February 25, 2020. (Reuters/Danish Siddiqui)

Demonstrators and police in India have attacked journalists covering protests across the country following the introduction of the Citizenship Amendment Act in December 2019. Some media workers have reported that they have been asked about their religious identity and others have been forced to delete pictures and videos from their phones. Journalists covering the protests should heed the advice of CPJ Emergencies’ latest safety advisory. (Also available in हिंदी में and اردو میں)

Journalists in India also face potential digital surveillance. CPJ Senior Global Tech Correspondent Avi Asher-Schapiro spoke with five journalists and commentators who were targeted in a WhatsApp spyware attack in India. WhatsApp has alleged that technology made by Israeli technology firm NSO Group was used in the surveillance effort.

In Syria, photographer Abdul Nasser Haj Hamdan was killed in a Russian airstrike on February 20 in Ma’arat al-Naasan, a city 4.6 miles northeast of Idlib. Hamdan, a photographer for the Media Office in Binnish, a pro-civil rights opposition outlet, had worked as a journalist since 2015, and covered events around Idlib, including the recent bombing campaign and anti-government demonstrations. According to CPJ research, 134 journalists have been killed in Syria since uprisings began in 2011, more than any other country over the same period.

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Journalist Azimjon Askarov is seen at a court in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on October 11, 2016. On Tuesday, the country’s Supreme Court adjourned the hearing of Askarov’s final appeal until April 7. (AP/Vladimir Voronin)

The Kyrgyzstan Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned the hearing of the final appeal of journalist and human rights defender Azimjon Askarov, who has been imprisoned for nearly 10 years, until April 7. A contributor to independent news websites including Voice of Freedom, Askarov was convicted in September 2010 on charges including incitement to ethnic hatred and complicity in the murder of a police officer, after he documented human rights violations in his hometown of Bazar-Korgon.

Askarov — who received CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award in 2012 while imprisoned — has been the subject of several advocacy campaigns by CPJ, including Free the Press, #FreeAzimjon, One Free Press, and The Washington Post Press Freedom Partnership.

Read CPJ’s 2012 special report on Askarov. Click here to tweet in support of his case.

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